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Fun Fundraising Ideas to Help You Reach Your Goals

Whether you’re raising money for a sports team, a school band, an academic club or a scout troop, fun fundraisers make it easy to get everyone excited about the effort, including the coaches or teachers, parents and kids, and even the community. After all, a city can only handle so many car washes before its community stops participating. So instead of doing something that everyone has seen over and again, make your next fundraiser something unique, exciting, and something your community will happily support.

Not sure where to start? No problem! Check out these fun fundraising ideas for inspiration.

FUNdraisers at Chuck E. Cheese’s: We are proud to support education in your community. When you host a fundraiser at Chuck E. Cheese’s, a 20% donation will be made to the school for all sales generated by your participating friends and family members, if you raise $3,000 or more. We will provide materials to promote the event, ten free play points for each child enrolled, a visit from Chuck E. at your school on the day of the event, and a free meal for all teachers in attendance.

5K Run/Walk: This is an especially fun way to fundraise if you’re hoping to earn money for a sports team or athletic endeavor. And while it can be as elaborate of an event as you’d like it to be, it can also be incredibly simple to host. The easiest way to do this is to host the 5K at a school or community track and have participants run laps. Assuming that the track won’t cost you any money to rent, and that you won’t need a separate insurance rider (talk with the owner of your location and/or a city representative to confirm), all money raised by entrance fees can go directly to the organization doing the fundraising. If possible, get a timing company to donate the race bibs and event timing, and if you can, hold a pancake breakfast at the end of the race to show your appreciation to participants.

Family Bingo Night: One of the most fun fundraiser ideas out there is family bingo night. If you have access to a gym, hall or event space, all you’ll need to do get a bingo cage, some bingo sheets, and markers. Add to it a little music, and some refreshments, like pizza slices, popcorn, cupcakes, punch, soda, water, etc., that you can sell for a small additional fee, and you’re ready to go. If possible, ask businesses in your area to donate prizes for bingo winners. Note: If an organization in your town already hosts a bingo night for adults, ask if your group can use their hall and equipment on a night when they’re not already hosting an event, and host your family bingo night fundraiser there.

Bowl-a-Thon: Just like family bingo night, this is a fun fundraiser for everyone in the family. All you’ll need to do is work with a local bowling alley to have the space donated, then enroll people in the event. The fundraising portion of the Bowl-a-Thon can be organized in a way that allows participants give a set amount to enter, or it can a pledge system that requires participants to donate a certain amount of money per game bowled, or per score, etc. If possible, arrange for gifts for participants with the highest score, largest donation, most strikes, most gutter balls, etc.

Cornhole Tournament: Another fun family-friendly fundraiser is to host a cornhole tournament at a local restaurant (one with ample outdoor space, of course), or park. Just like other tournaments, a cornhole tournament requires just a little setup, which includes cornhole boards, bracket charts (if necessary), judges/score keepers, and someone to sign teams up and accept their entrance fees. If you’re hosting a Round Robin tournament, then all teams will play each other once and the team with the most wins ultimately wins the tournament. Alternately, you can host a single-elimination tournament, which sees teams matched up in a bracket format, then any team to lose a game (or any team that loses in a best-of-three scenario) is eliminated. The winning teams continue playing until a winner is crowned. If the tournament is hosted at a park, selling refreshments can help your organization raise even more money. Or, if the tournament is at a restaurant, perhaps you can arrange to have a portion of the day’s proceeds, or proceeds from a specific dish, donated to your organization.

For even more fun fundraising ideas, think about your community – who they are, and how they spend their time – and create a fundraiser that gives something positive back to those who support you. If you can develop an idea that brings people together and helps create positive memories for everyone, you can easily build on that idea and use it every year, which makes fundraising for your organization even easier.